Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,255 to £17,650
Handsome-looking hatch; nicely finished interior and efficient new 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engines; good new 1.6 diesel.
Lumpy ride on the biggest wheels, engines could be quieter at speed, no external boot release, optional sat nav has ultra-vague instructions.
A vast improvement over the unloved Stilo but no more than an average car in its class.
The Bravo comes with three three-point rear seatbelts, ISOFIX child seat mounting points, a two-stage driver's airbag, passenger airbag and side airbags in all models; Active spec upwards adds curtain airbags (well worth having). Other worthwhile options include rear seatbelt pre-tensioners/load limiters, active head restraints and a driver's knee airbag, as well as an alarm.
All of the above has helped Fiat achieve an impressive five-star rating for adult occupant safety in the Euro NCAP crash tests, with three stars for child protection and two (out of four) for a pedestrian impact.
Of course, it's clearly better not to have the accident in the first place, and the usual ABS, EBD and ESP braking and stability aids help keep you in control. There's a hill-holder feature within the braking system, too, which maintains pressure for up to a second and a half after the driver releases the brake pedal until the Bravo accelerates forwards (when pointing uphill) or backwards (pointing downhill), so making hill starts easier.
